“The problem with the dash—as you may have noticed—is that it discourages truly efficient writing. It also—and this might be its worst sin—disrupts the flow of a sentence. Don’t you find it annoying—and you can tell me if you do, I won’t be hurt—when a writer inserts a thought into the midst of another one that’s not yet complete?”

She hasn’t been a life-long anti-em dash user, but was forced to switch sides after admitting to herself that she had a problem.